THE UNKNOWN CITY.

I SAT upon an ancient wall,
A fragment weed-o'ergrown;
And at my feet, mid nettles tall,
I saw a sculptured stone:
Riven by Time's blow, its figures told
No tale, they were so worn and old.
A mighty City once was there,
An Empire's haughty seat;
A purple throne, its gaudy sphere
Fill'd with the miscall'd great;
And Beauty flutter'd, Valour tower'd,
And Luxury there her pleasures pour'd.
And Virtue mingled rare as now-

And perhaps a Patriot spirit burn'd
With stifled ardour, while his brow
Was dark at Freedom overturn'd,
And dared not breathe the generous sigh
For home, and friends, and liberty.
And Art her column'd temples raised
To a lost Heaven and Deity;
And men forgotten praised and pray'd
In language soon no more to be,
On hills that since had sunk away
In Nature's steady stern decay.
And even Verse, that living thing
Which bard and prophet poured there,
Had faded from Tradition's wing-
The very songs that Time's despair
Oft mangles, but cannot destroy,
Were gone with annal, jest, and toy.

The past was all devour'd—and all

Hope, fame, love, grandeur, wealth, and power,

Had sought and revelled in—and small,

Beyond the smallest in that hour,

Were worth of actions that had been
Upon that long-forgotten scene.

The Antiquary delved in vain

For coin or relic where the plough

Long furrowed, for the waving grain

For ages grew where wastes were nowAy, long long ages since the day

That unknown City pass'd away.

A GOOD NAME.

"Would you, Sir, if a Jew of a godfather had proposed the name (of Judas) for your child, and offered you his purse along with it—would you have consented to such a desecration of him?" STERNE.

MR. EDITOR,-I never .could understand why Sterne should have thought it necessary to put so much insinuation into old Shandy's manner, in order to pass off his hypothesis on names; as if the matter of it were either new or rare," or as if the theory were not as "good and lawful" a theory, as most that pass current among speculators. Certain it is that I, for one, have had frequent occasions for determining its validity, having through life been the victim of my own names; so that I never reflect on that question of the catechism which asks "What did your godfathers and godmothers then for you?" without wishing them all heartily-no matter where. "What's in a name?" asks Juliet, and the question is well put by a love-sick inexperienced girl, for it would have been quite out of keeping in the mouth of any other character. It is, indeed, with names, as with physiognomies; they produce their impressions unconsciously, nay even in spite of the strongest predetermination to laugh theory out of countenance. to dwell upon such common-places as Alexander and Turpin, traitor and liberador, orthodox and heterodox, I shall simply appeal to "la sagesse des nations," as Figaro has it,-to that wisdom which cries out in the streets, and which expressly declares that to give a dog an illname is as bad as to hang him.

Not

Not that I am absolutely superstitious in the matter, or would go the whole length of honest Mr. Shandy, in believing that "there is a strange kind of magic bias which good or bad names irresistibly impress upon our characters and conduct:" neither am I so utterly prejudiced, as finally to condemn any man on the mere strength of his name, even though that name should be A. or B.; nay, though it were that of Barabbas or Oliver himself. Yet these opinions have been entertained-ay, and by wise men too. Augustus, the night before the battle of Actium, met a poor fellow driving his ass; and their names being respectively Eutyches and Nicon, (that is to say, Fortunate and Victor,) he thereon drew a happy presage of the morrow's fight:-the more ass he for his pains, perhaps you will say; and I so far agree with you, that if there be any thing in names, I hold that the benefit could belong legitimately to none but the owners. Of this we may be sure, that the modern Eutyches, Mr. Goodluck, the lottery-office keeper, in assuming that fascinating appellative, had an eye much more to his own fortunes than to those of his customers. But soldiers, you know, are ever superstitious; and the ass of Augustus was as good a hobby-horse to ride upon, as the " Cæsaris fortunam" of his predecessor, or the rival stars of Napoleon and the Wellington, about which so much has been said. St. Jerome tells us, that certain names were applied by the ancients, "quasi ob virtutis auspicium, sicut apud Latinos Victor, Probus, Castus;" or, as Camden expresses it, "upon future good hope conceived by parents of their children, in which you might see their first and principal wishes towards them." Just so, in our times, certain little personages give their children the names of great men, upon future good hope" of what may be got through their influence; though,

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perhaps, this practice is nearer of kin to the popish use of giving to children the names of saints, in the hope of placing them under good and holy protection. The consequences of such an idea are obvious: all men are prone to believe that what they wish will happen; and this simple desire gradually warmed into a presumption of cause and effect. This notion gave birth to the superstition of Onomantia, or divination by names, of which the quintessence lies in Shandy's creed, that a man may be "Nicodemus'd into nothing." The whimsey has had more or less of vogue in all times, being, as usual, prevalent in proportion to its emptiness and absurdity. It was very influential among the Covenanters, as is witnessed in those elegant appellatives, "Tribulation," "Holdfast," "Freegift," and "Praise-God Barebones." Camden mentions a German in his day, who drew up a table of good and evil names, which, saith he, "I wish had been suppressed; for that the devill by such vanities doth abuse the credulitie of youth to greater matters, and sometimes to their own destruction;" and, truth to tell, I have myself often thought "the old gentleman" had more to do with my own christening than the holiness of that ceremony at first sight comports. From this conceit about names probably arose the singular custom of pricking with a pin, into the Bible, in order to obtain a prænomen,-a custom, which, in these "without-note-or-comment" times, might have become universal, had not one unlucky onomant stumbled upon Beelzebub for his child's namesake; which, as the godfathers declared at the time," was the devil's own name to give to a Christian."

Leaving, however, such superstitions on one side, and confining myself solely to the operation of natural causes and the evidence of physical facts, I maintain that it is by no means indifferent to a man's fortune what name he bears; and that a good name, like a good address, is a powerful letter of recommendation. "Arrah! is not that a pretty name to go to church with?" is a common expression of the Irish to an O'Flanigan, a Geoghegan, or an O'Flaherty; as much as to say, that nothing Protestant could wear such a Milesian appellative. Nor is this altogether a vulgar prejudice; for I put it to yourself, Mr. Editor, supposing that a Terence O'Phelim O'Shaughnessy (no offence to the worthy boot-maker so called) should apply for a place under government, at the same time with an Augustus Frederick de Courcy, or a William Henry Fitz-Walter, would not the latter name, cæteris paribus, carry the day in any office in Downing-street? Giovanni della Casa has written a spirited Capitolo on his ill-luck, in having been christened John; and not without reason. I cannot understand how any parent, having the bowels of compassion for his offspring, could impose on it such a vulgar and trivial appellative, to be held in common with all the tag-rag and bobtail of society.

"Così qualche intelletto di cavallo,

Barbier, o castra porci, o cavadenti

Sempre ha viso d'aver quel nome, e hallo."

John! Jack!! Jacky!!! faugh; Gros Jean, Petit Jean, Hans, they are all alike had.

"Mutalo e sminuiscil se tu sai,

O Nanni, o Gianni, o Gianino, o Giannozzo,
Come più tu lo tocchi peggio fai,

Che gli è cattivo intero, e peggior mozzo."

Then again, Thomas! who above the condition of a servant would be called Tom? "Is it Tom the footman, or Tom the cat, you mean?" asked a little Thomas, of its grandam, when she was accusing him by name, of some mischief. Now though this may have been very convenient, though many such cases may occur, in which a certain ambiguity, "whether it was Mrs. Sullen or Dorinda," may have its use, yet it would be rather disagreeable to one Tom Smith to be hanged for another; or for a Jack Jones to lose a fat legacy for want of a “some ilk" to distinguish him from his numerous name-fellows.

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If Christian names sometimes show the vanity of parents, sir, or sur-names, are often proofs of the malignity of the world. The Malleverers, for instance; though the name is now a good name, yet it does not the less come of" malus leporarius, and must originally have been applied either in fun or malice. So the Malduits must have been called by some one who thought them better fed than taught, and had but a bad opinion of their scholarship. Of this sort of names the Romans were prodigal, probably from their military habits; just as the French army called Bonaparte "le petit caporal; or as our men christened the great captain of the age "Nosey." The Scrophas, the Strabos, the Cresiuses, the Ciceros, and the Balbuses, are cases in point; and in their origin were any thing but complimentary. The low wit of the middle ages expended itself rather by certain scurvy additions to the Christian name, such as Longshanks, Lackland, the Bald, the Stammerer, and the Unready. Baldwin le Pettour is said to have acquired his untranslateable addition from the singular tenure by which he held his lands, " per saltum sufflum et pettum sive bumbulum ;" and it was in those days, probably, held as "proprior honori quam ignominia;" but such horrible nuncupations as Higginbottom, Ramsbottom, Badcock, Heaviside, and the like, "disguise them how you will," must ever remain a reproach and a by-word to the owners. Platina, in his "Lives of the Popes," tells us that the custom of changing the name on arriving at the pontificate, arose with one BOCCA DI PORCO, who 'per la brutezza di questo nome, si facesse Sergio II. chiamare.' In this the gentleman did perfectly right; for surely it would have been a sin and a shame, if the infallible decrees of Heaven had been suffered to find a vent from the mouth-piece of a hog. This indeed, was a case for applying the vulgar adage, that " a pig may whistle, but he has a very bad mouth for it ;" for to see a pig's muzzle seated in the chair of St. Peter, would almost have justified the schism of a whole legion of antipopes.

Of the immense value of a good name nobody is more sensible than our facetious collaborateur, New Monthly Magazinicè called Grimm's Ghost; who contrives to cover his cockney heroes with ridicule from the starting-post, by their ludicrous appellations. In fact, it would be impossible to look a Higgins or a Spriggins in the face without laughing; or to be presented to a Buggins, without an internal movement of discomfort from an association of the name with the most odious of vermin. Its rhyme-fellow Muggins is a name so totally encanaillé, that no man wearing a gilt button, should allow himself to bear it. Mr. Shandy imagined that names might be good, bad, or neuter in this division I cannot agree: every undistinguished name is positively bad; and Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson, are but a degree removed from Simpkin, Atkins, Wilkins, and the worst tribe of diminutives in "kin,”

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which are as sure marks of hopeless roture as a man can carry about him. Some men, conscious of the indignity of their family name, have sought to qualify its vulgarity by bestowing on their children a highsounding Christian name; producing such startling catachreses as Augustus Tofts, Theodore Crooks, or Wilhelmina Skeggs; others have slided in a distinguishing termination, after the manner of Wyatville, even though at the expense of forming a mulish cross between the Saxon and the Norman. Hogsflesh, in the whimsical, though d-d farce of" Mr. H." gets a licence to change his name to Bacon; thus sheltering himself under the wing of the mighty restorer of modern philosophy and no greater instance can be afforded of the triumph of virtue over fortune, than in the gentilization of so homely and culinary a name as Bacon; but who now would not be proud to bear it? The exchange of Smythe for Smith, Tayleure for Tailor, Ryder for Rider, are paltry equivocations, unworthy alike of a great or a good man; and the sly smuggling-in of a prefixed de is a dangerous deceit, since any fool knows that de is exclusively the avant-courier of a Norman name. Much better is it to change the offensive appellative at once ;"reform it altogether," like that worthy Irishman, who, disliking O'Gallagher as being too national, changed it for O'Neal, in order to be more English and genteel. The changing a name, I am aware, is no light measure; and "Polyonymous," a man of many names, is little better than synonymous for a thief. Yet upon good cause it may lawfully be done; nor do I see more shame in coming out of a bad name, than the ancient thought there was in coming out of a bad house. this point hear Camden, an excellent authority:-" But hereby it may be understood that an alias, or double name, cannot prejudice the honest; and it is known that when Judge Catiline took exception at one in this respect, saying that no honest man had a double name, and came in with an alias, the party asked him what exception his lordship could take to Jesus Christ, alias Jesus of Nazareth." The inconveniences of a bad name are manifold. First, in love a romantic appellation is next to a handsome exterior: and Thomas Trott, for a sig nature, would effectually overthrow the finest piece of oratory that ever came from the pen of a Rousseau. I know not what effect it might have had on the world, if Julie had been represented as a pock-marked hunch-back, or if St. Preux had been drawn with one leg three inches shorter than the other; but of this I am sure, it could not have made their loves more ridiculous, than if they had signed themselves Bill Gibbins, and Judy Goodbody. This, indeed, is now matter of record: for we all know the effects of "Giles Jalap the knave and the brown Sally Green," in the imagination of the reader. If to marry for a title be an object of lawful ambition, the choice of a name surely cannot be a consideration beneath the regard of a wise woman. Mortimer and Montmorenci are, in themselves, almost as good as a title; while Nicks and Jucks, Titmouse, Cuckold, and Bumford, are names that would frighten a spinster of the slightest taste and good-breeding. I knew a lady who always arranged the cards on her chimney-piece according to the value of the names: so that Mrs. Veal should be hidden from view by Mrs. Constantine Cavendish; that Mr. Crump should be eclipsed by Mr. D'Aubeney Mountjoy; and that Miss Jenny Jones should play least in sight with Mr. Beauchamp Capel Sellinger. But